US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran on Monday of ordering the Houthi rebels in Yemen to continue fighting despite commitments they made in Stockholm last December.

Pompeo, speaking at an event in Washington hosted by The Hill newspaper, said: “[The Houthis] continue to refuse to comply with the agreements that they signed up for in Stockholm, Sweden, they refuse to withdraw from the port of Hodeidah ... this is because Iran has chosen to direct them to do that.”

London, 30 April - US Central Command Chief General Kenneth McKenzie said on Saturday that the US would counter any dangerous actions by Iran by deploying the necessary resources.

McKenzie, who was on an official visit to the Gulf region, said: "We're gonna continue to reach out to our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make common cause against the threat of Iran. I believe we'll have the resources necessary to deter Iran from taking actions that will be dangerous. We will be able to respond effectively."

Kuwait officials have voiced their “concern” over Iran’s threat to close down the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, in response to US sanctions, because Kuwait is one of the countries that will be adversely affected if Iran follows through.

Kuwait’s deputy foreign minister Mr Jarallah told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Sunday: “We are looking at these threats with concern, and hoping as always to distance our region from this tension.”

United States Central Command Chief General Kenneth McKenzie said on Saturday the United States would deploy the necessary resources to counter any dangerous actions by Iran, Sky News Arabia reported.

“We’re going to continue to reach out to our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make common cause against the threat of Iran,” McKenzie, on an official visit to the Gulf region, was quoted as saying by Sky News Arabia.

London, 29 April - United States President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe both expressed their commitment to eliminating all oil exports from Iran, a top U.S. diplomat official has said.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty on April 27 told reporters in a call that Trump and Abe also discussed a "desire to see Iran change its path and seek a more peaceful course forward."

Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has dismissed the suggestion of a prisoner swap for a British-Iranian mother being held in Tehran as a "vile" diplomatic ploy, while her husband told AFP the idea was "almost impossible".

In New York, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday suggested a swap between Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is in jail in Tehran for alleged sedition, and Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian woman held in Australia on a US extradition warrant.

Two Trump administration officials said on Friday that neither a wind-down period nor a short-term waiver on China’s oil purchases from Iran are being contemplated after Washington announced this week that sanctions waivers on the purchase of Iranian oil would end after May 1.

London, 27 April - A recent report published by the International Monetary Fund shows that the economy in Iran dwindled last year following sanctions that were leveled by the US. As well, it is expected to decrease by another 3.6 percent or more this year. Iran’s oil exports have declined by more than half, and the rial, its currency, continues to decline in value. The recent flooding has also added to the economic crisis. Now, with the new sanctions leveled at the Iranian government’s military institution — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliates — an even more significant pressure will be put on the Islamic Republic.

The US designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist group has significantly affected the fate of financial reform bills that the West demanded, according to the Secretary-General of the influential Expediency Discernment Council (EDC) in Iran.

Major General Mohsen Rezaei said on Wednesday, that the IRGC designation was a "well calculated and premeditated" American plan.

The Director-General of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in East Azerbaijan Province announced 60 activists of the main opposition group People’s Mojahedin (MEK) have been arrested in the past year, according to the Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

For the past four decades, the ruling system in Iran has made no secret of its hatred of the United States. Over the years, there have been many threats made to the U.S. – sometimes barely veiled threats, but more often, direct and clear threats.

During the Iran-Iraq war in the eighties relations became even worse. The U.S. deployed the Navy to escort tankers and ships through the Persian Gulf, resulting in exchanges of fire with Iran. Pretty much every time, the U.S. fared better than Iran.

London, 25 April - The US recently placed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on its list of foreign terrorist organisations, which is a bold move that complements the Treasury Department’s previous listing of the IRGC as a banned terror group. It was the first time that an entire division of a foreign government was formally labelled as a terrorist organization.

Iran's main opposition group the People's Mujahedin (MEK) on Tuesday announced the names of 28 anti-regime activists arrested, some as little as a month ago, for their role in nationwide protests against the regime.

The MEK, also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI), called for urgent international action for the protesters' release.

London, 24 April - Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday adopted a bill that labels all United States military forces as terrorist, state TV reported, a day after Washington ratcheted up pressure on Tehran by ending sanctions waivers on the purchase of Iranian oil.

The bill is a step further from the one last week, when Iranian lawmakers approved labelling U.S. troops in the Middle East as terrorist, in response to the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards earlier this month.